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A chronology of the beginning of the light car. The innovations that were incorporated in the motorcar.
The first wheels
500BC. British Iron Age chariots, their wheel hubs and spokes turned on a rotary
lathe.
Invention of the road spring
1665. a friend of Samuel Pepys named Colonel Blunt invented the steel elliptical
road spring. His work was continued by a Lambeth coach maker Obadiah Elliot who
patented the elliptical spring.
The car boot
On a stagecoach, passenger’s luggage was carried at the back of the coach in a
box on which the guard stood, hence The Boot, the name still used in the modern
car.
Rubber Tyres
1795 Prince Orloff presented a rubber tyred carriage to Zarina Catharine 2nd of
Russia.
1888 John Boyd Dunlop re-invents the Pneumatic Tyre.
1895 Michelin tested their special Pneumatic Tyres in the Paris Bordeaux race.
The First Steam Transport
1767 Nicolas Joseph Cugnot in France introduced the first steam
transport, having constructed a wooden carriage with a big round boiler
on the front. Steam was fed from the boiler to a 2-cylinder steam
engine. The carriage was 24ft (7.3m) long, 7ft 8 inches (2.3m) wide. The
maximum speed of the carriage was 2.5 miles per hour (4Km).It had to
stop every 15minutes to top up the boiler and refuel. It could carry
four passengers and was steered using a tiller.
One of these machines is preserved in Paris.
In England the famous engineer James Watt and his assistant William
Murdock experimented with steam propulsion. However it was left to the
brilliant Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick to produce the first
successful steam carriage in 1801. Called the “Puffing Devil”, it was
tested in Camborne in 1801 when it ran at 9 miles per hour {14.4km/hr}.
A boiler explosion destroyed this carriage; it was rumoured it was
parked outside a public house at the time! By 1803 Trevithick had built
another machine and this carriage could travel faster than a horse and
cart. Why Richard Trevithick did not continue with his work we shall
never know.
It was left to another Cornishman, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, a surgeon
born at Treator, near Padstow, to produce a successful Steam Horseless
Carriage. In 1827 he patented a steam driven road locomotive. The flue
for the fire was at the back of the carriage and it burned either
charcoal or coke to stop smoking. A 12 horsepower steam engine was fed
superheated steam from a 40-tube boiler. The engine drove the back
wheels. At the request of the war office the machine was road tested and
travelled from London to Bath and back at an average speed of 15mph. It
was never used by the government but was used in the West Country.
In
parallel with Gurney’s work Walter Hancock of Stratford London put on the road a
series of highly successful steam carriages. Mechanised transport had arrived.
The internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine describes an engine where the combustion of the fuel
is inside the engine. The first of these were gas engines. In 1794 a chap
called Street suggested gasses for fuel. In 1823 Samuel Brown invented a coal
gas engine, which he fitted to a road carriage. The action was based on a pair
of pistons working in cylinders. The pistons were forced up by the pressure of a
gas flame and returned downwards by atmospheric pressure.
Brown's apparatus was too clumsy to work correctly and the first gas
engine was evolved by the Frenchman Lenoir in 1860. His engine used a
mixture of gas and air fired by an electric spark to move the piston in
the cylinder. In 1862 it was another French engineer Beau De Rochas that
developed the theory of the modern internal combustion engine, He
arranged a method of compressing the mixture before it was fired.
Working at the same time was the German Engineer Doktor N A Otto. He
designed a successful coal-gas engine (the Otto Cycle), based on de
Roche’s principles. He had researched this work in a small factory near
Cologne in1863. He employed a technical Director, Gottlieb Daimler. In
1882 Daimler branched out on his own at a place called Cannstatt and it
was here that he developed the first lightweight internal combustion
engine that used petroleum vapour fuel. However his was not the first
engine designed to work on petrol vapour. In 1879 an Austrian named
Siegfried Narkus fitted a small petroleum-vapour engine to a two-wheeled
handcart.
Daimler’s engine was much lighter than the previous gas engines; the gas
engines developed 1 hp for every 300lbs weight. At a crank speed of
250rpm.
Daimler’s engine was capable of running at up to 800rpm and it developed
1 hp for every 90 lbs weight.
In 1885 Carl Benz built his first car using an engine of his own design.
Daimler used hot-tube ignition for his machines while Benz used electric
spark.
1890 Panard and Lavassor started producing cars using Daimler engines.
These cars were of fundamental importance as they originated the formula
of placing the engine in the front under a bonnet.
In the 1890’s the car was born and production started in Western Europe
and the United States.
The Primitives
These were a cocktail of designs basic 3 or 4-wheeled carriages, with an
engine and tiller steering. In this short article there is not
sufficient space to describe how each evolved.
Henry Ford in 1896 produced one of the first small cars; it had a simple
open chassis frame supported on four tangent-spoked wheels fitted with
small pneumatic tyres. The front axle was supported by a full elliptical
spring and incorporated tiller-controlled Ackerman steering. The
2-cylinder engine produced 3 hp.
To continue the next major invention that effected the light car development was the De Dion-Bouton engine. Ten years after Daimler’s invention of the medium speed engine there occurred another advance of fundamental importance in engine design. Two Frenchman Count Albert de Dion and Georges Bouton developed a lightweight engine using Daimler’s principles. This engine weighed just 40lbs and produced ½ hp at 1500rpm. Continual development of this engine continued so that by 1902 it produced 8hp for an average weight of 25lbs.
These engines were produced in increasing numbers at the De Dion-Bouton
works at Puteaux and also under licence in England Belgium, Germany and
America.
The impetus which this highly practical power unit gave to the young
motor industry in general was of the greatest importance.
The Cycle Car
From
the photo it can be seen that the by 1909 the Austin Voiturette were
taking on the form of the motorcar as we would recognise it.
1910 saw the development of the cycle car. These cars had evolved from
their predecessors the Tricars, Quadricars and Voiturettes.
From a primitive stage of development these vehicles could now embark on
long journeys. Their engines were robust; ignition systems were reliable
and efficient practical spray carburettors were in production.
The design of these light cars was based on lightweight motorcycle
components rather than the heavier motorcar.
On the 14th of December 1912 at a meeting of the Federation
International des clubs Motto Cyclist, it was decided there should be an
international classification of cycle-cars. This was accepted by all
nations.
This type of car introduced motoring for the common citizen. These cars
were able to be run for about a penny per mile and cost between £60 &
£200 pounds.
The next big event in world history was the First World War when all
production of cars for civilian use stopped.
From 1919 to1929, the decade after the First World War was one of the
most important in the evolution of the light car. It was notable for the
development of the Ultra-light car as distinct from the cycle car.
In 1922 Herbert Austin designed a miniature car that was virtually a
scaled down large car. Six prototypes were built with 696cc.
Four-cylinder water-cooled engines. This engine developed 10 bhp at 2400
rpm and weighed 7 cwt. (356 kg), giving a power to weight ratio of 28.6
bhp/ton.
One of these prototypes was presented to the Science Museum in 1953.
Full commercial production of the Austin Seven began in 1923 but with an
improved engine of 747.5 c.c.
Improved models of the Austin seven appeared from year to year as demand
for it increased but the essential design remained unaltered.
The first A7 Ruby had a 2 bearing crankshaft like its earlier brothers
and sisters: the engine had a compression ratio of 5.4 to 1, it
developed 13.5 bhp at 3500 rpm. As the weight had been increased to
1385lb, this gave a lower power to weight ratio of just 21.8 bhp/ton.
By 1937 the engine had been replaced with basically the same power unit
but with a centre bearing fitted in the crankcase. The compression
ratio had been increased to 6.3 to 1, and the engine now developed 17hp.
This extra power brought the power to weight ratio back up to 27.5
bhp/ton.
In practical tests matching the 1937 Ruby to the earlier cars, the older
cars appear to be much faster.
The Austin Seven ceased production in 1938 due to public demand for a
larger bodied car. This was supplied by the 900 cc Austin Big Seven
which developed 25 bhp at 4000 rpm, launched as a four-door (Sixlite)
version in July 1937 and two-door (Forlite) in March 1938.
Here was must end our end our story of the evolution of the light car.
To finish, more Chronology
Coolant- 1859 Ethylene Glycol invented by the French chemist Charles
Wurtz. It was not put into mass production until 1937.
Wheels- Up to 1914 wooden spoked or wire spoked fix wheels were used.
1914 saw the introduction of detachable wheels of the Rudge-Whitworth
or Riley type used.
Carburetion- 1893 Float feed spray carburettor devised by Wilhem
Maybach. This ensured the fuel-air mixture remained constant.
Ignition - Robert Bosch(1861-1942) was the first to make and patent a
reliable Magneto in 1902.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) worked on the generation of high voltage using
coils.
Kettering’s high-tension coil and battery system became widespread in
the 1920’s.
Bodywork (1925/1930) - In order to cut down on body weight, many light
cars used leather flexible covering.
Paintwork - Early cars used paint and varnish, this was good for about
12000 miles.
In 1924 Du Pont introduced cellulose and by 1930 this was universally
adopted.
Petrol - 10th January 1928, Pratt’s motor oils introduced leaded petrol
from America.
This article, written by Ian Leaver, appeared in Focus in three parts in Jan 2010 pp12-13; Feb 2010, pp12-14 and Mar 2010 pp16-17.